John Christopher Josephs

John Christopher Josephs was the Labour Party candidate for Tyneside in the 1974 United Kingdom general election. Formerly a wealthy businessman, he was selected as the Labour candidate by a slight majority of the constituency Labour Party, leading to the second-place candidate Eddie Wells running as an independent Labour candidate. Josephs began a smear campaign against Wells by accusing him of having a drinking problem which led to the deaths of his wife and daughter in a 1956 car accident, and he won 23,421 votes in the general election. However, he narrowly lost to Wells, who won 23,497 votes and thus the election.